(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to shooting ranges of the kind including a projectile trap and, more particularly, to a projectile trap for varied uses, including for use in a shooting range.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
The design and operation of shooting ranges is a sophisticated engineering matter in which safety is paramount. Thorough discussions of the design and layout of modern shooting ranges may be found in “Design Criteria for Shooting Ranges” by C. Vargas, Third National Shooting Range Symposium (1996); Army Regulation AR 385-63 “Range Safety”; Navy Handbook (MIL-HDBK) 1027/3B, “Range Facilities and Miscellaneous Training Facilities Other Than Buildings” and the National Rifle Association's “NRA Range Source Book.” These references are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.
Shooting ranges having projectile traps are known. Heretofore, the traps have included various apparatuses for preventing fragments of lead and other metals from escaping the traps and becoming a hazard to health and the environment. Both liquid and dry systems are popular. Examples of such systems, commonly owned by the applicant, are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,070,763, 5,113,700, 5,121,671 and 5,486,008 issued to Coburn.
The construction of a shooting range with a projectile trap may be accomplished by joining individual subassembly deceleration chambers. These assemblies are generally cylindrical in shape with endplates provided for joining each deceleration chamber to an additional adjacent deceleration chamber until the desired width of projectile trap is accomplished. These cylindrical shaped deceleration chambers may leave the endplate exposed to projectile impact and visible from the shooter's perspective. This edge could be impacted by an inline projectile while the edge also may restrict horizontal cross firing, and the edge was at all times visible to the shooter.
U.S. patent application Ser. Nos. 10/317,025 filed Dec. 11, 2002 (Publication No. 2003/0177895); 11/437,469 filed May 19, 2006 (Publication No. 2006/0208425); and 11/437,231 filed May 19, 2006 (Publication No. 2006/0220319), to Lambert disclose a shooting range including a projectile trap without intervening sidewalls where the deceleration chamber is formed by a multitude of individual plates. This shooting range has not been generally accepted because of high manufacturing costs associated with fixing large numbers of individual plates to adjoining plates.
Thus, there remains a need for a new and improved shooting range having at least one shooting station and at least two projectile traps adapted to be joined together along adjacent ends in a manner which provides for substantially unobstructed horizontal cross firing while, at the same time, the front edges of the joint between the projectile traps are substantially out of view from the shooting station.